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![]() Finally, my boss approached me and said, 'Choose which you'd rather do-sell buttons and belts or take pictures.' When I said photography, he said, 'You're digging your own grave."' He said, "By this time I was shooting local cultural events and personalities for the Associated Press in my spare time. In it, Eisenstaedt offered this anecdote about his deciding move. An article in American Photo, magazine during the summer of 1991 did a feature on Eisenstaedt for their series entitled, Legends: The Secrets of Their Success. You can get paid for this?" That payment encouraged him to spend more time taking pictures. Der Weltspiegel, a German weekly, bought it for $3. The story was told so many times in Eisenstaedt's lifetime that it became as well-known as the legendary photographer himself. Eisenstaedt set up his first darkroom in his family's bathroom.Įisenstaedt was on vacation in Czechoslovakia in 1927 when he snapped a picture of a woman playing tennis. This was the turning point in his love for picture taking. In 1925, a friend demonstrated how to enlarge photographs. What soon became commonplace, was then a groundbreaking development in the field of photography. The camera was compact and worked with available light. What caught his attention was a new camera called the Ermanox invented by fellow German, Erich Salomon. In the 1920s, his interest in photography was revived. ![]() They lost all of their money and Eisentaedt was forced to find work. The economic decline of post-war Germany proved the undoing of the Eisenstaedt family business. While Eisenstaedt nearly lost both his legs, the rest of his battalion was killed.Įisenstaedt returned to Germany following the war and went back to the university. In December of 1917 when he was hit with shrapnel during British shelling in the second Allied western offensive. There he served as a field artillery cannoneer. Eisenstaedt was sent to Flanders following his basic training. He was drafted into the German army in 1916, in the midst of World War I. His uncle gave him a camera for his 14th birthday, but Eisenstaedt quickly lost interest in it.Įisenstaedt graduated from the Hohenzollern Gymnasium in Berlin. His father owned a department store and made an above-average living for his family. His friends called him, "Eisie."He was the older son of Joseph and Regina Schoen Eisenstaedt. Self-Taught Hobby Led to CareerĪlfred Eisenstaedt was born on December 6, 1898, in Dirschau, West Prussia, then a territory of Germany, and later known as Tczew, Poland. At that moment, Eisenstaedt snapped the picture. He followed him long enough to see him grab the woman whose outfit in white brought the contrast of the sailor's blue to his keen eye. One of the people he noticed was a sailor who was kissing his way through the crowd. That day in August of 1945, Eisenstaedt was simply walking among the crowd that had gathered on the streets of New York. He often noted that he had learned it was the reaction to an event that created the best picture, rather than the event itself. He got it as he got many of his pictures-persistence rather than planning. Even those who did not know his name, knew his picture.Įisenstaedt was almost 47-years-old when he took that picture. The picture, that of a sailor in his blue uniform kissing a nurse in her white uniform, with a passion usually reserved for lovers, became synonymous with the mood of celebration the country felt at the war's end. But the photograph that won him the most fame was the won he took in Times Square on V-J (Victory over Japan) Day in 1945, ending World War II. He died at Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard.Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) was an established photographer when he moved to the United States from Germany in 1935. He was so closely linked to it that Leica presented him with a unique model in crhome bearing serial number M3-1000001 in recognition of his contributions both to his profession and to the popularity of the 35mm format. In 1936 he became one of the original four staff photographers for the new Life magazine over the span of his career, he contributed 90 cover photos and approximately 2,500 photo essays to that publication.Įisenstaedt was a devotee of the Leica 35mm camera, introduced commercially in 1925. His early work was heavily influenced by the pioneering documentary photographer Erich Salomon and during his years in Germany he was present for many historically important events.Įisenstaedt emigrated to the United States in 1935 in consequence of rising anti-semitism in Germany. ![]() An ardent amateur photographer, he became a professional in 1929 and was hired by the German office of the Associated Press. The pioneering photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt was born in Dirschau, West Prussia.
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